24 ASTRONOMY • JULY 2022
PAINTING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
ROBIN PLEAK
Europa Glow
Digital
A small robotic rover travels the trackless wastes of
Europa, bathed in the dim glow of ice and snow that
have been excited by intense radiation from nearby
Jupiter. The radiation will severely limit the functional
lifetime of any craft sent to explore the icy moon, as
energetic particles bombard onboard computers and
other delicate electronics, quickly degrading them.
MARILYNN FLYNN
Titan’s Southern Summer
Digital
A cloudburst of methane rain floods a river as it carves
a canyon through layers of reddish hydrocarbon-tainted
water ice on Titan. Astronomers have observed convective
clouds in the moon’s southern hemisphere during its
summer; rainfall from such clouds could be substantial.
Meanwhile, images from Cassini reveal flowing river
channels of liquid methane and ethane feeding lakes. This
moon is so cold that water ice plays the role of solid rock.